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the ruin of Fountains is the most perfect of all the Cistercian establishments in the kingdom. Its plan is so clearly traceable, and its buildings are in such condition, that it forms an excellent field for the study of the economy of monastic architecture. W. A. W.] VOL. I. T 138 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. IL though in ruins : at "Whalley it was, till within the last thirty years [before 1800], entire. In those cathedrals, particularly Durham, which have preserved their monastic form, the Protestant deans having occupied the apartments of their excluded predecessors the priors, the deanery is yet found precisely in this relative situation. 1 For this position also of the abbot's or prior's apartments a good reason may be assigned ; for, in the quadrangle there was evidently no room for them ; placed to the north of the church they would have been cold and dark ; to the west, too remote from the choir and chapter-house ; and to the south, immediately in the way of kitchens and offices. No situation remained, therefore, but to the south-east, or immediately opposite to the choir, where they united the advan- tages of shelter, sunshine, and contiguity to those parts of the house where the abbot's presence was most frequently required.
dictated to the Cistercians in the choice of situations, at least for their Northern houses, it may be observed that, though they affected to plant themselves in the solitude of woods, which were to be gradually essarted by the labour of their own hands, and though they obtained au exemption from the payment of tithes on that specific plea, yet they were excellent judges of the quality of land, however concealed, and never set about their laborious task without the assurance of an ample recompence.
must have been men of taste as well as judgment, who had better eyes for landscape than their abstracted patron, St. Bernard. 2
Monasticon Eboracense, and with Browne Willis's Ichnography of the Cathedral of Durham, vol. i. p. 223. On the progress of Norman and Gothic architecture as displayed in these buildings, I forbear to make any remarks, for the subject has often been treated of late, and is now pretty generally understood ; but, if the reader wishes to see it discussed in a masterly manner, he is referred to Mr. Bent ham's Remarks, History of Ely, sect. 5 and 6, where he will find the genuine science of James Essex united with the fine taste and critical discernment of Mr. Gray, or to Observations on the Faery Queene, vol. ii. from p. 181 to 198, by Mr. Thomas Warton, who has treated Norman and Gothic architecture, not indeed with professional exactness, but with that felicity of real genius which illustrates and adorns every subject that it touches. To all these may now be added the more elaborate and critical elucidations of Dr. Milner. 2 St. Bernard, in a fit of devout abstraction, is said to have walked a whole day along the Lake of Lausanne without perceiving it. ( Vita Bernardi, 1. 3, c. 1, p. 2014, edit. Par. 1632.) For this absence of mind, or want of taste, he is sneered at by Mr. Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. 59), who certainly beheld the same scene from the windows of his library at Lausanne with no mixture of those affections which engaged the Abbot of Clareval. ^ I cannot often accord either in my feelings or conclusions with this great but disingenuous historian ; yet in the present instance I can no more conceive than himself how piety is promoted by insensibility, or how the sanctity of Bernard would have been endangered by a moderate use of his eyes in contemplating some of the most beautiful works of the Creator. I have what was meant for a portrait of Bernard in painted glass, preserved out of the wreck of the long gallery at Whalley, but it is only appropriated by the crozier, the glory, and the white Cistercian gown ; for the man who sat for this picture must have been a plump and jovial monk of later days, not the pale and meagre saint, much attenuated by the discipline, and more by the disease, of fasting, for Bernard was long afflicted by a constriction of the oesophagus. How happy for himself that he thought abstinence a duty ! [This head is now, 1871, at The Holme.] BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 139
around, and an amphitheatre of sheltering hills, clad in the verdant covering of their native woods beyond, these were features in the face of Nature which the earlier Cistercians courted with instinctive fondness ; where these combined it does not appear that they ever abandoned a situation which they had once chosen ; and where these were wanting, it is certain that they never long or willingly remained. Thus Tulket, which was abandoned for Furness, Stanlaw for Whalley, and Barnolds- wick for Kirkstall, though not deficient in general fertility, wanted all these peculiarities of situation and beauties of landscape.
at present. 1 First, then, the whole area of the close, containing 36 acres 3 roods 14 poles, is still defined by the remains of a broad and deep trench which surrounded it ; over this were two approaches to the house through two strong and stately gateways yet remaining. They are constructed in that plain and substantial style which characterised the Cistercian houses, a style which approximates to that of fortification, and shoAvs that the monks did not obtain a licence to kernel and embattel without an end in view. [The central portion of the north-west gateway is almost entire, and is a fine specimen of Late-Decorated architecture, probably of the middle of the fourteenth century. It is of two stories, the higher being supported on stone groining springing from wall corbels. To this upper room, however, there is now no staircase ; access must have been gained from apartments north and south of the existing portion. But though there arc three side doors of com- munication, nothing is now to be seen even of the foundations of these buildings. 2 The north-east gateway 3 is of much later date and more complete, with its angle buttresses and battlemented parapet. It possesses a spiral staircase in an angle turret which leads to the second story and the roof.] Within this area, and on the verge of Calder, which formed the south-west boundary of the close, was the house itself, consisting of three quadrangles, besides stables and offices. Of these the first and most westerly was the cloister court, of which the nave of the conventual church formed the north side ; [the south transept, sacristy, chapter-house, penitentiary, and portion of common refectory the east ; the kitchens, principal refectory, &c. the south ; and the guest-house the west. The roof of the cloister was supported on wooden posts, the corbels for bearing the rafters being still visible in the walls. The area within was the monks' cemetery, and some ancient grave- stones are still remembered within it. In the south wall of this quadrangle is to be seen 1 [For the careful Plan, which has been substituted in the present edition for that which previously appeared, the reader is much indebted to William Angelo Waddington, Esq., architect, of Burnley, author of Architectural Sketches on the Calder and Ribbk, 1869.]
Mr. Waddington's work above named, together with a view of the Cloister Court, showing the entrance to the Chapter House, and another of one of the south-west angles of the monastery, showing the Monks' Day-Room.]
evident that the architectural friend whose opinion he quotes placed the erection of the north-west gateway about 150 years too late.]
140
HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II.
a wide arched recess which has evidently contained the lavatory. 1 The groove of the lead pipe is still conspicuous, as is also another for the reception of a wooden rail on which the
the conventual church now remain ; 2 of these more will be said hereafter. The library and monks' dormitory were also destroyed by Sir Ralph Assheton. Of the buildino-s to the south nothing is now to be seen but a portion of the north wall of the refectory, &c. pierced by two or three moulded doorways ; but the eye rests with satisfaction on the beautiful doorway of the chapter-house, with its numerous pateras, and the richly moulded and traceried windows on either side, with many shafts, and an amount of carving which serves to illustrate the peculiar care which was bestowed on the decoration of this buildin"-. The other doorways are devoid of carved ornaments, but have moulded arches and iambs. The windows of the day -room have mullions with simple tracery heads. The south-west ansle is generally admired, being more ornate and decidedly picturesque. There are many insertions of windows and other departures from the original design in this range, but the predominating style is that of the transition from the Decorated to the Perpendicular. The guest-house to the west is almost entire, but its buttresses have been much broken and some of its windows destroyed. It is now used as a barn and
church 011 one side, the opposite side of the chapter-house, &c. on another, a line of ruinous buildings on the third, and a large distinct building, itself surrounding a small quadrangle, on the fourth. This appears evidently to have been the abbot's lodgings; for which reason, as being best adapted to the habits of an ordinary family, it immediately became
1 [" Adjacent to the refectory \vas the lavatorium, or place for washing for the monks, and, although we know that they were Imything but cleanly in their persons, it is curious to trace how careful the abbots were to have a good supply of pure water for the establishment. * * * There are two beautiful wells in Wiswell and Whalley, one in the field above Mr. Cottam's cottage, the other near Ingham's Wood, both circular, with hewn ashlar steps, which were the reservoirs from which they drew their supplies, and which attest the value that they put upon a good water supply. From these heads an inch leaden pipe, of which there used to be specimens in the cottage until the late sale, con- ducted the water ; and if any one will search in the bottom of the field called Sheep Hey, he will find remains of the pipes still existing. The monks were fond of wells, and on Ascension Day the rustics in some places used to assemble around them, dance, chant psalms, and encircle them with emblematical flowers, which was called Well-flowering. In June 1847, when driving the piles for the piers of brickwork of the railway viaduct opposite to the lower corner of Titus Edwards's cottage, the workmen came upon the wooden framework composing the cloughs or outlets of the ponds or canals constructed by the monks. The framework was very strong- so strong that the contractor would not allow it to be disturbed ; and in front of it there extended a thick board, pierced with small holes, less than half an inch, which would appear to have been placed there to keep the fish in." Lecture by Eev. E. N. Whitaker, Vicar of Whalley, 2 Feb. 1869.] 2 [Mr. Waddington has remarked that, though we still have in England many perfect monastic churches of other orders, there is not one of the Cistercians that is not roofless and in ruins. This has probably arisen from their secluded sites, away from large populations that might have adopted them for parochial use.] p
S 8 uj ^ 5 ? (S) i 8 BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 141
the residence of the Asshetons, [who in their additions piled up the beautiful fragments of the abbey in many grotesque forms. Very little of the original building is now left. Its best apartments, amongst them a gallery nearly 150 feet in length, have been demolished. It was enlarged in 1862 (as shown on the Plan) without regard to the style of the original structure, and is now formed into two distinct residences.] The ancient Kitchen, the Coquina Abb', of the Compotus, whence such hecatombs were served up, remains, though roofless, with two huge fireplaces. On the southern side of this building is a small but very pic- turesque and beautiful ruin mantled with ivy [presenting a very elegant window of Trans- itional character]. It appears to have been a chapel, and was probably the abbot's private oratory. But to return to the conventual church itself, which [would rank amongst the finest of the Cistercian order in Europe, and] exceeded many cathedrals in extent. As before stated, it has been levelled nearly to the foundation. This work of havoc was probably an effect of that general panic which seized the lay-owners of abbeys, on the attempt made by Queen Mary to restore the monks to their cloisters. " For now (says Fuller) the edifices of abbeys, which were still entire, looked lovingly again on their ancient owners ; in pre- vention whereof, such as possessed them for the present, plucked out their eyes by levelling them to the ground, and shaving from them, as much as they could, all abbey characters." l 1 From the following particulars, which I have since met with in the Account Books of Sir Ralphe Assheton, it appears that a considerable part of the church, together with much of the cloister court, remained above 120 years after the Dissolution, when they were demolished at a considerable expense, and for no assignable cause :
adjoining to it, at M. per yard, 26s. 8d. More to them, being the whole, for pulling down 223 y 1 '", as per note 9 Q m99t -.." " More to d, for pulling down the end of the close wall next to Gilly's house, and a peice adjoining to the barn side, at Gd. per yard, 25*. 6d. " More to them for pulling down 136| y ds of the old steeple, at id. per yard, 21. 5s. Id. " P d in part for pulling down 14 y ds of the highe cloister walls next the dove coat, at Gd., 7s. More, in full, for the same side, 3d. " In part for the other, &c. &c. In all, for this work, 11. 15s. 8d. " P* John Gilbert for taking down the great window or door at the. head of stairs in the cloisters." To compensate, however, for this havoc, Sir Ealphe Assheton, in the years 1664 and 1665, fitted up the Long Gallery, which, in little more than a century, followed the fate of its predecessors, and is itself become a ruin, without the charm of antiquity.
which I have called the dormitory is a hollow space, almost from top to bottom, which has apparently had no opening but by a breach i$ the wall. It contains a narrow staircase, at the bottom of which is a small arched space on the level ground, just capable of containing a narrow bed, and at the top is a narrow opening through one of the external buttresses of the building for air and light. It could not, therefore, be intended for the tremendous Vade in Pacem, but it was, probably, the " teter et fortis career" for refractory monks, into which the Liber Loci Benedicti informs us that one of the fraternity was thrust for attempting to stab the Abbot of Kirkstall in the chapter-house. The breach through the wall by which this singular excavation is entered, is now wide enough to admit a man's body with some 142 HISTOKY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II. However, in the month of August 1798, permission having been obtained from the guardian of the present owner to investigate the foundation by digging, a very successful attempt was made to retrieve the whole ichnography of the church, 1 of which there were no remains above the surface to assist conjecture, or to guide research, but one jamb of the west window against the wall of the dormitory, a small portion of the south wall of the nave, a fragment of the south transept, and another jamb of one of the side chapels east- ward from the last. An inequality in the ground eastward from the transept in an ad- joining orchard showed the half-pace into the choir, of which the outline to the north and east was also denned in the same manner. Upon these slender data we proceeded first to investigate the foundations of the columns towards the west end, and having ascertained the distance of one from the south wall, the width of the south aisle, and consequently of the north, followed of course ; another digging, immediately to the north, ascertained the width of the middle aisle, and a third from east to west gave one intercolumniation ; the length of the nave being already given by the remains of the transept, the number of columns was now proved. A right line drawn along the remnant of the south wall, and continued to the intersection of the nave and transept, proved the length of the latter on the south side, and consequently also on the north. The choir evidently appeared to have had two side aisles, [and each transept the three eastern chapels, so common in churches of this order].
the surface. Accordingly, under the high altar nothing appeared but a bed of undisturbed and native sand ; but beneath the second half -pace, immediately leading up to it, were turned up many broken remains of a painted pavement, consisting of small glazed floor- tiles, 2 adorned with various devices, and of different forms and dimensions. At the foot
small aperture only was left to admit his provisions. Had he been left to expire in his dungeon, it is evident that no aperture would have been left for light or air.
by Mr. Palmer, who was an architect in Manchester, and who was employed in 1816-17 in the restoration of the Col- legiate Church, of which he wrote the description appended to Dr. Hibbert's History of the Foundations of Manchester. He died in 1846, at the age of G4. Gregson's plate of Whalley Abbey Church is incorrectly entitled a view from the South-East instead of the South-West. But it.has besides many architectural faults. The style displayed is totally at variance with the date ascribed to it (1409), as the existing portions exhibit the characteristics of a date at least forty and the church at least sixty years earlier. The transept is a departure from all rules of proportion. The Cistercian cloister-walk was covered with a simple roof, supported on wooden posts, and not an elaborate stone erection as shown, which certainly exists in the Benedictine churches at Wells, Worcester, Canterbury, Gloucester, &c., and also in those of the secular canons at Lincoln, Salisbury, &c. The existing portions of the structure are very badly drawn, and the whole is disproportionate and in exaggerated perspective. The small elevation of the dormitory and west end of the church is open to the latter objections ; the porch is unusual, and the buttress pinnacles could never- have existed as they are represented. W. A. Waddington.]
part of the original floor of the conventual church. It is composed of encaustic tiles, many of which are still found. All those in the nave were turned up and dispersed at the time when orders were given to dismantle the building.
BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 143
of the stalls a narrow rectilinear filleting of the same material had bounded the whole. On some was inscribed the word GftXRIG in Longobardic characters. This pavement had been deeply bedded in mortar, but was altogether displaced, and turned down from one to three feet beneath the surface, where several skeletons were found very entire and in their original position, but without any remains of coffins, vest- ments, or other ornaments, as appeared upon a most minute investigation. These, how- ever, were beyond a doubt the abbots of Whalley. From the confused state of the original pavement the whole floor of the presbytery, from the foot of the stalls, appeared to have been successively covered with gravestones, all of which, however, had been removed, excepting fragments of two ; one of these had a groove, once inlaid with a filleting of brass, and the other, beneath which lay the skeleton of a tall and robust man, had deeply cut upon it the stump of a tree raguled. This I conjecture to have been a thorn, intended as a rebus upon the name of Christopher Thornber, the fifteenth abbot, who died in 1486. In this search we narrowly missed the fragments of the gravestone of Abbot Lindley, which were casually turned up on this very spot A.D. 1813. On one, in the Longobardic
None but abbots were interred in the high choir ; 2nd. The characters cannot be later than the latter end of Edward the Third, when the old English black-letter was substituted in its place. Erom the foundation to this time three Johns had been abbots of Whalley, Belfield, Topcliffe, and Lindley. The termination of the surname must have immediately preceded the word hujus, but the letters AJ can only have formed the termination of Yüklə 4,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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